RBS's 'last bank in town' ads banned from TV

Thursday 16th February 2012

Two ‘last bank in town’ TV adverts for NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland have been banned by the advertising watchdog.

The ads attracted two complaints which said there was at least one place, Farsley in Yorkshire, where NatWest had closed its branch despite being the last bank in town.

RBS agreed this was so, as usage of the Farsley branch had fallen, but said that the ad stated that their commitment was to continue providing ‘banking services’ wherever they were the last bank in town. The ad showed a mobile service.

The bank did not go as far as to say that they would commit to keeping all branches open. It said Farsley residents had access to another branch in Pudsey just 1.5 miles away.

But the ASA upheld the complaints, saying the ad would be interpreted by viewers to mean that NatWest would not close a branch where it was the last one in town. It felt that the ad implied that a branch was a bricks and mortar building, not a mobile service.

In a busy week for the ASA, it also upheld a complaint from someone who had received a text message from a claims management firm.

The message said: “Records passed to us show you are entitled to circa £3,250 in compensation from the mis-selling of PPI on your credit card & loan. Reply STOP or PPI for info.”

The complainant had never taken out PPI, and challenged as to how the firm, DARH Ltd, could substantiate its claim as to having had records passed to it.

DARH did not respond to the ASA, which upheld the complaint. The ASA also noted that the text message did not contain information about the identity of the marketer and that it was in breach.